Cloud Dragon
by JessicaSkyHigh7
Summary: Who knew that Harry's life would become drastically different just by watching the clouds. ONESHOT


Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs in the Harry Potter Universe. Harry Potter and such belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not making any profit from this fic.

Warnings:  
Mild abuse, M/M, DMHP, Pre-Slash, Not Epilogue Compliant

Notes: This is my first oneshot, as well as my first Fanfiction. I hope you enjoy, and I would appreciate some feedback! Thank you.

Summary:

Who knew that Harry's life would become drastically different just by watching the clouds.

 **Cloud Dragon**

It was after NEWTS on a spectacularly sunny day. Harry decided to treat himself to cloud watching, it wasn't so much of a treat as it was a childhood past time that he now retreated to when Ron and Hermione wanted some alone time.

Harry sighed and looked up at the clouds. He was sprawled out on the grass by the Black Lake. He hadn't spent much time near the body of water since the third challenge in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Those were times Harry didn't care to reflect on now, he would never have to choose between Ron and Hermione again. The happy couple were attached at the hip, and almost engaged. Ron had shown Harry what kind of ring he would like to get Hermione, but he hadn't make the purchase yet. Harry was happy for his two best friends. They had found love in a dark time and they weren't going to let their happiness slip away. Harry wished he could do the same.

As the thought passed a shadow enveloped him, he tilted his head forward to see none other than Draco Malfoy. "You're blocking the sun, Malfoy."

"Am I now? They Golden Boy doesn't generate his own sunshine? Who knew! Another fun fact for my list to send to _The Daily Prophet_." Draco huffed as he flicked his hair out of his eyes.

The motion caught Harry's attention. Malfoy looked nice with his hair at it's current length, not too long, and not too short. Harry stopped himself. _Nice? Since when did the word_ _ **nice**_ _ever apply to Malfoy_? His brow furrowed at the thought. "Sod off, Malfoy." Harry swatted at the air with his hand in Draco's direction. The cloud that Harry had been watching, shifted once more from the bunny it used to be, and slowly evaporated, leaving nothing behind. He sighed, and sought out another cloud.

"What on Earth are you looking at, Potter?" Draco asked while searching the sky for whatever Potter was looking at. _Potter certainly is an odd duck. What_ _ **is**_ _he looking at? Maybe you can only see it lying down_? Draco pondered as he gracefully sat down cross-legged facing Harry.

"Sod off, Malfoy." Harry made eye contact with him, and held his gaze. Harry sighed seeing the determination in Malfoy's brilliant eyes he wasn't going anywhere without an answer. "Cloud watching."

Draco scrunched his face against his Malfoy upbringing. "Cloud watching?" Draco looked into the sky and noticed the some odd clouds that hung in the blue. It really was a beautiful early summer day. "How do you do that?"

Annoyed Harry rolled up on his elbow. "You watch the clouds and look for shapes of things." He then hunkered back down to the ground.

Draco looked up at the clouds again. He squinted and tried to see if any of the clouds shared a resemblance to something other than a fluffy mass. After searching for a moment he thought he could see something. A long face emerged from the cloud travelling smoothly from the breeze. Next a long powerful neck and hooves appeared. Draco quickly pieced together an image in his head. I smiled in spite himself. "Pegasus."

"Yeah, I see it too."

"An amusing pastime, how did you come by it?" Draco paused then quickly added, "Do you mind if I join you?"

Harry looked back over to Malfoy, their eyes met, and he felt that Draco was finding peace in the clouds. "I s'pose not."

Draco swung out to lie on his back next to Harry. "Thanks."

Harry's eyes darted over to Draco's prone figure, and then back to the clouds. _He's really changed since the war._ "Hmm."

Malfoy clearly did not want to enjoy the sky in silence. "How did you come by this, Potter?"

"Well, if you must know—"

"I must."

"Fine. My cousin and I would do this when we were little until my Aunt and Uncle decided that they didn't want their child hanging around a freak."

 **Flashback**

"Look at that one Harry!" Dudley's pudgy fingers pointed at a cloud resembling a roast chicken.

"Do you always think about food cousin?" Harry laughed at his cousins obsession with food. "Oh look there! It's a knight slaying a dragon!"

"DUDLEY!" Petunia's voice rang through the house. Harry could hear here stomping in their direction in the garden. "What are you doing?!"

"Cloud watching with Harry?" Dudley's face showed concern and confusion. He honestly didn't know why his mum was upset.

"Get away from that freak."

"But Mum look! Harry saw a dragon in the clouds!" The pudgy hand shot back into the air.

"Dragons do not exist. Get away from the freak." She hauled her four year old away from the thing that lived under her stairs. "You, get back in the cupboard."

"Dragons don't exist?" Dudley asked as he attempted to wriggle out of his mothers grasp.

"They do too!" Harry shouted as he stood up. Harry had no clue as to why he insisted that they were real. He had a gut feeling, something inside of him knew they were real.

The next thing Harry knew Petunia's hand swiped him across the face, knocking him to the ground. "you will not spout such nonsense to my son, you freak!"

Harry was both upset and mad. He longed for his mother, because there was nothing motherly about Petunia. "I'm not a freak!" Tears were welling up in his eyes, his face stung from the slap. He did not understand what he was feeling but it was hot and it made him grind his little teeth. "I'm not a freak!" He screamed.

Next to him one of Petunia's large clay pots shattered, with no visible provocation.

 **Resume**

That was the last moment he ever spent in enjoyment with any of his family members. It was also the first time that Harry was proven to be a freak, his first time performing accidental magic. And life turned to shit from there.

"It was something my cousin and I used to do when we were toddlers." Harry didn't get why he was telling Malfoy this of all people, it's not like the Slytherin actually cared. Harry recounted his memory to Malfoy anyways.

"That's awful. That you 'Aunt' treated you like that." Malfoy sounded sincere.

Harry snorted. "That's mild compared to the rest of my childhood. No wait, that isn't even MILD."

"You didn't gr– "

"No I didn't know I was a wizard. I didn't know til my 11th birthday when Hagrid came to get me."

Malfoy rolled up on his elbow, eyes dark. "That's awful Harry. I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for, Malfoy?"

Draco's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm sorry for the way that I treated you, and your friends."

Harry let out a laugh, and rolled up on his elbow too. "Like you would have done anything else. And don't even try to say you would have. We both know what kind of pressures being in your family put on you."

"Fine." And he flopped on to his back very un-Malfoy-Like.

"But thank you."

A very wide smile spread across Draco's face. _This is wonderful. Everything! The air, the clouds, being with Harry._ Draco sighed. Yes he was coming to peace with himself. The only reason Draco could not find any single person interesting was lying beside him. _Oh gods._ He was _lying_ beside Harry. His face slowly grew hotter. He swallowed and attempted to restrain his heart and the fluttering in his stomach. But yes, Harry outshone anyone that Draco tried to become involved with.

"What's got you doped up?"

"Huh?" Draco snapped out of his reverie. "Nothing! – Just admiring how peaceful this is."

Harry allowed himself a small smile. "Yeah it is."

This was Draco's chance. "Why isn't weaslet—Ginny here? With you I mean."

"She kinda flipped out on me when I didn't come back to her after the war. How was I supposed to know I didn't fancy boxes."

Draco's face scrunched up with confusion. "Boxes? What do boxes have to do with anything?"

Harry waved a hand at Draco, "It's okay, it doesn't matter."

"Well you deserve to find love and have it. Why not her?"

Harry facepalmed himself. He was not going to come out to Draco, even if he was finding this meeting peaceful as well.

"Fine, but you are the saviour of the wizarding world. You deserve some peace. You're able to live your life how you want now."

"And that's another reason I'm not with Ginny. I don't think she'll ever truly get over my 'image.'"

"Oh."

"Why do you care anyways, Malfoy?"

"You can call me Draco, eh Potter?"

"Fine then, I guess you could do the same? So why do you care, _Draco_?"

Draco shuddered at the sound of his name coming out of Harry's mouth. "Like I said Harry, you deserve some peace and happiness."

A jolt ran through Harry, it was like he had been zapped by electricity. _No, that can't be._ The more Harry pondered the idea of him actually being attracted to Draco. It all made sense everything, the reaction he just had, as well as the obsessive stalking on his part. Draco has always been there, always in the corner of his mind. "Thanks, Draco."

"Just stating the truth."

"Speaking of the truth, what brought you down here?"

"I saw you and wondered if everything was okay, actually."

Harry sighed. It was nice to have a conversation like this with Draco, and he has changed since the war. "Ron and Hermione were having a snogfest and I didn't want to be around that. They're so in love it makes me sick sometimes. – But don't get me wrong, I am so happy for them. I'm glad they figured each other out, it took them long enough."

Draco chuckled surprisingly. "I always thought she'd go for him. It doesn't surprise me really. Though the odd thought crosses my path that if she and I were to get together we'd have the smartest children."

"You? You had thoughts about having kids with Hermione?"

"NO! Not like 'oh yeah I'd like to settle down with her'. Just like we'd have smart kids. That's all. No I couldn't get past my one true love." It all just shot out of Draco's mouth without any control. His hands clapped over his mouth.

"So there is someone who slithered in to your heart, eh, Draco?" Harry teased. He could not resist making the pun.

"No. It's more so someone roared all the competition away, and it took til after the war for me to realize it."

Harry felt suddenly very hot. He got up and took off his shirt.

"Where are you going Harry?"

"For a dip, I'm too hot to be lying in the sun any longer."

 _More like sexy I'd say. Quidditch and fighting off the Dark—Voldemort almost every year has done him well._ Draco appreciated what was in front of him. "Do you mind if I join you? It is quite hot, like you said."

"You're not going to burn like a phoenix into a pile of nothing?"

"Ha, ha, very funny, Potter. Do you mind if I join you?" He asked again, almost too eagerly. He'd been waiting all year to spend some sort of bonding time with Harry, they were almost done their eighth year. He needed to move now before every opportunity slipped through his fingers and he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Harry turned back to see Draco shirtless as well, and nearly gasped. _No, no, no, no, no. This is NOT happening._ Harry was beginning to feel that all too familiar sensation in his groin. He had to get into the water and fast. "Yeah sure." He answered breathlessly, and stripped down to his boxers. He took one more backwards glance before running off and diving into the water. It was a drastic change from the heat of the sun, but once he surfaced he was used to the temperature. He looked back to the shore to see Draco in nothing but his own boxers toeing the edge of the water. "Too cold for your Slytherin heart, eh Draco?"

Draco's head shot up. "No not at all, it's just it's the black lake, and I've never been in it before. Is it really all that safe?"

"It will be if we don't go very far. Nothing likes to come up to the shallows."

"I'm trusting you Potter." Draco took a few tentative steps into the water. After his feet adjusted he took a few more steps, and a few more after that. He paused once the hem of his boxers reached the surface of the lapping water.

"Alright there Draco?" Harry laughed.

Draco sighed loudly and took two large steps, the water now reaching his chest. "Merlin, that's always the worst part!"

"That's why I dive in."

"Not all of us are Gryffindors Harry!"

"No you're right. Ron is like that too."

"Don't you dare compare me to your friends!"

"Hey! You were the one that said that YOU and HERMIONE would have smart babies!" Harry dove under the water again to avoid the argument.

"Cocky Potter." Draco mumbled to himself before submerging himself completely into the water as well. He opened his eyes under the water to see if it was clear enough to see. Surprisingly enough, the black lake was not as black as one would think. It had to have received its name from how deep it was and how black it looked from the sky.

Harry swam by him, gave him a thumbs up and smiled. He was smiling at Draco, and Draco could not help but return the smile. Not the Malfoy restrained smile, but the smile of his true self. Harry was smiling at him for a small accomplishment, and it felt wonderful. His heart pounded rapidly, with this he realized he also needed to surface for air.

"Look at you! Huh, I didn't think you'd want to soak your hair."

"You don't know me too well then. I love swimming thank you very much. We have a large pool at the Manor."

"How would I know you Draco, we've spent so many years at each other's throats."

"I'd like to get to know you better." Draco said quietly mostly to himself. What Draco didn't take into account was that sound travels over water.

"I wouldn't mind that." Harry had been taking admiring glances at Draco as he swam around him.

"Oi! Harry!" The sound of Ron's voice travelled down the hill to the lake from the castle.

"Hide!" Harry hissed.

"What? Why do I have to hide?"

"Just go!" Harry shoved Draco's head under the water after performing a quick bubble head charm. He had made sure to learn that one since gillyweed wasn't that common. "Yeah Ron?"

"Why are you in the lake?"

"Just wanted to swim, why?"

"No reason." Ron ran a hand through his hair.

"Care to join me?" Harry asked knowing the answer.

"No thanks mate. I am not going in there. – Come find me when you're done, alright?"

"Yeah sure Ron."

"See ya." Ron waved as he headed back to the castle.

A smile spread across his face as he dove down and found his face right next to Malfoy's. Draco smiled in return as he gave him a thumbs up, they both surfaced.

"What did your friend want?"

"Don't know. Didn't ask. I wanted him to leave."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"I wanted to stay here with you?" _What on Earth am I saying?!_ Draco's smile spread even wider across his face, and Harry decided he liked seeing Draco smile.

While Draco was hiding in the lake he came to realize what Harry had meant by he didn't like boxes. If a girl wore his underwear she would have boxers covering her box. Harry had essentially told Draco he was gay, and it made his heart soar. Who would have ever thought that he might have a chance with Harry?! Not himself, not in the slightest.

"Harry what's your type?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"Like men, what kind of men do you prefer? What gets your hippogriff running?"

Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking like a fish. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're gay. You said so yourself. You don't like boxes."

"I know what I said okay? I was relieved when you didn't understand."

"We'll now I do, so tell me."

"No."

"Fine then, I'll tell you what I like about my love."

Harry snapped his mouth shut. Was Draco really going to explain who his love was? Did this person even know they had captivated Malfoy's heart? And why did that hurt? Harry felt his eyes widen with shock. He really did have it in for Draco. A smile spread across his face, but then he was brought back to the present.

"Not as tall as me, but not too short. _He_ has black hair. And as I have mentioned _he_ is a Gryffindor."

"I get that it's a man Malfoy."

Draco nodded. "He's in our year." Harry's face lit up. "And it's always just been him." Draco's eyes were shy as he looked over at Harry, trying to process what _his_ Gryffindor thought.

Harry smiled. "Well since you told me about your love I guess I can tell you about mine." He may not love Draco yet, but he realized there was no going back, and no one could make him feel this way. Not the good, or the bad, and talking to him civilly soothed Harry in a way he didn't think was possible. "I myself have only just come to realize him, and my feelings. He's a bit taller than me, the most beautiful silver eyes, completely opposite houses, and yet, he completes me in a way I didn't think possible. Like I said I _just_ came to realize this. And when he smiles, well, there is no competition." And he dove under the water. It got too intense too quickly and Harry had a knot in his stomach.

Draco shot out and grabbed Harry by the foot, and hauled him up. He took Harry's face in both of his hands. "You can't tell me you have feelings for me and then just swim away!"

"And you can't tell me you love me and not expect me to swim away!" He shouted back.

Draco's eyes kept moving between Harry's eyes looking for the truth. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you. I have been holding this in for so long, I just needed to let you know, before we left."

"And what did you think you were going to do once you told me?"

"Well honestly, I thought you'd hit me or run off."

"I haven't hit you, and I'm still right here. So now what are you going to do?"

"Can I show you instead?" Draco searched Harry's eyes for an answer, finally he nodded and Draco slowly brought his face to Harry's. Continually searching for refusal, Draco brought his lips slowly to Harry's, but he could not wait anymore. He still wanted to keep the moment tender, he shut his eyes and closed the gap. Draco gasped as Harry's chapped lips met his own petal soft ones.

Instant fireworks.

Draco released Harry's face and sewed them into Harry's hair, while his counterpart snuck a hand around Draco's waist, and his other to his neck, bringing them closer together. The air fizzled with magic. And Harry thought _this is what love should feel like. He's the one._ They parted smiling at each other, and drew in for another kiss. This one was rougher and both boys could feel the heat emanating from the other. It was pure bliss.

Overhead as a Slytherin melted in a Gryffindor embrace, a cloud dragon melded into a lion.

 **Epilogue**

Years Later

Draco stood peering through the bay window. The sun shone brightly and in the sky were white puffy clouds, slowly drifting across the sky. _A perfect day for cloud watching._ The silver band on his finger glinted as he covered his eyes from the sun. Draco turned when he heard light footsteps behind him. Harry approached and smiled at his husband. "Look at the clouds Harry. It's perfect, shall we go?"

In return to Draco's question Harry gave him a large smile. "Let's,"

After grabbing a blanket the pair set outside to the gardens of Malfoy Manor. Harry flapped out the patchwork quilt Mrs. Weasley had made for them as wedding gift, which was well used for this exact reason. He smoothed the blanket out and gestured for Draco to lie down, and followed suit. They lay there on the grass the clouds so similar to what they had been on that fateful day.

Harry smiled, "Oh look at that Draco."

Draco's eyes followed Harry's pointing finger. Across the lower half of the sky was an image of a cat curled up in itself, napping. "Why can't we have a cat again?"

"Because I'm allergic, you know that."

"You only got a little itchy." Draco pouted.

"And I swelled up like I did when the Snatchers brought us here!" It had not been a pleasant time for Harry when Draco brought back a kitten from the Ministry. But when he discovered it was the cat, it was promptly removed from the Manor.

Draco huffed and scanned the sky hoping to see something that would take his mind off Topaz, his beloved kitten. He and Harry continued to 1-Up each other, but after what felt like an hour, the clouds were growing larger and closer together; signaling that their time was up. One last scan and Draco smiled he had won for today. "Harry look, it's a dragon."

Harry smiled he saw the dragon too. His heart fluttered at the opportunity presented to him. He rolled towards his soul mate, and whispered in his ear. "I always see you in the clouds, Draco."

 **Fin**


End file.
